Drum sets are typically heavy and comprised of pieces that must be carried separately. Transportation of a conventional drum set usually requires a hatchback, truck or van.
More compact, portable percussion sets have been developed, usually by reducing the size and number of instruments, and usually sacrificing tonal quality. Some examples are as follows:
1. Bongos, Conga, Djembe or similar—lightweight and easy to stow and carry, but comprised of only one or two instruments.
2. Cajon—lightweight and portable, and contain instrument sub-components (snare and bass), but no toms or cymbals. Also, playing volume is limited and playing position is uncomfortable; it is played sitting on the box, bending towards the floor to strike it with bare hands.
3. Cocktail Drums—predecessor to this invention, a drum set typically played standing. While relatively compact and convenient, if suffers from the following drawbacks:                a. The hi-hat (if one is present) is usually not articulated by a foot pedal, as the foot not used for playing the kick drum must be used for standing.        b. Standing on one foot is tiresome.        c. The snare drum is typically an upper chamber in the kick drum, thus compromising tone and allowing cross-talk.        d. Adding components (toms, cymbals, etc.) adds items that must be carried separately, reducing convenience.        
4. Hipgig Drums—an intermediate size, smaller than a conventional set, but larger and more full-featured than a Cocktail kit. A drum-shaped throne opens to stow hardware, and the kick drum opens to stow the snare and toms. This set offers improvements to portability, however the set is still likely to require 3 or more (kick drum, throne case, and cymbals) trips to carry, and the total weight is more than an average person can comfortably lift and/or carry.
5. Gigpig Drums—a miniaturized, full-featured kit, based on a Cajon-like box fitted with head(s) as a kick drum, an integral snare drum, and an array of cymbals and toms. The set offers portability and compactness, even rolling on integral casters, however it is not as portable or complete as the Invention (lacking an integral throne). Also the relative positions of the instruments are for practical purposes fixed; the snare and tom head surfaces are fixed in a single plane. The toms are physically shallow and lack sonic depth, resonance and projection.
6. Arbiter Flat Drums and similar—related to (likely precursor to) Gigpig drums, full-sized drum heads and shells, but having very shallow molded shells for all drums, which are rack mounted. While the drums are said to sound good, the lack of enclosed volume in the shell limits the projected volume and fullness of tone. When played in professional environments, the set is usually sound-reinforced with microphones and a public address system. Currently, many sets on the market are offered bundled with amplified speakers.
7. Electronic Drums—are compact and easily transported, however:                a. A PA system or other amplifier/speaker system is required.        b. Expressivity and tonal variety, as effected by nuances of playing technique, are severely limited by immature sensor, sampling and signal processing technologies.        